The gravity of Liverpool's Rio Ngumoha
The best players and biggest stories from UEFA Youth League: Matchday 5.
We’re almost there now. This was the penultimate matchday of this season’s UEFA Youth League league stage. The junior teams have just six games to play in this initial phase, unlike the men doing the heavy slog of eight — with two matchdays coming after Christmas before the knockout rounds!
Anyway, this is the matchday where it gets serious serious. This is where the must-win game are actually must-win games. In some cases, it was all or nothing: win and you’re in, lose and you’re out.
The new format has its critics — we honestly don’t know what to think about it, really, let’s give it some time — but it has thrown up some unusual results and mantained a sense of excitement and jeopardy that doesn’t come with your classic six-games-against-three-teams format. Previously there was a mismatch of mismatches, now there’s a newness to each match-up.
There are still five unbeaten teams: Internazionale, the only team with a 100% win record, plus Sporting CP, Red Bull Salzburg, Girona and LOSC Lille. Who would’ve predicted that five before the tournament kicked off?
Enough. Let’s get going. Llew Davies and Jake Entwistle are here to report and summarise their way through football’s future. Dig in and enjoy.
Llew Davies
In this UEFA Youth League: MD5 round-up…
- Another exciting set of Sporting CP prospects
- The freakishly mature (and good) Arsenal talent
- La Masia spawn more human highlight reels
- Why Rio Ngumoha is an outstanding prospect
- McAidoo and Riccio hat-tricks, and more…
